Sarah Chalke Lands ‘Maneater’ Gig

Cool casting news: It looks like Scrubs star Sarah Chalke is heading back to Lifetime in another made-for-TV project.

The Canadian actress many sitcom fans know best as fictional Sacred Heart’s Dr. Elliot Reid last appeared on the network in the successful 2006 movie Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy. Now, she’s set to star in the four-hour mini-series Maneater, slated to premiere in 2009.

The series is based on the book of the same name by Starter Wife novel author Gigi Levangie Grazer (and, yes, the Debra Messing mini-series turned series is based on that bestseller, as well). Chalke plays self-involved, 31-year-old socialite Clarissa Alpert, who becomes determined to snag a famous Hollywood producer named Aaron Mason as her husband and enlists her entire family and group of friends to help.

Timothy Busfield, who has been busy filming episodes of series like Lipstick Jungle and Without a Trace lately, will direct, and writer Suzanne Martin, a two-time Emmy winner for Frasier, will handle the adaptation.

If you’re a Chalke fan or if this sort of chick-TV is your thing, get happy because there’s little doubt the project is destined to become another hit for Lifetime — the combination of talent is just too potent for it to be any other way.